BRANTLEY COUNTY, Ga. — The Georgia Forestry Commission said early Thursday the Highway 82 Fire stands at 5,000 acres. Fifty-four homes were destroyed in the wildfire so far.
On a positive note, GFC said no additional homes have been burned.
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Officials said the fire was calm Wednesday night due to the high humidity, but the GFC is expecting more fire activity Thursday due to decreasing humidity.
According to Seth Hawkins with the GFC, 30% humidity is the threshold for wildfire activity concern — on Thursday, the area around the fire is expected to have about 26% humidity.
During a news briefing with Hawkins, he said debris from September 2024’s Hurricane Helene is serving as a matchbox. Several agencies are assisting in the fire fight.
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“We’ve got resources from all over the state, from the local fire department to the forestry commission to the Georgia DNR, to state troopers law — enforcement everyone’s coming up to help,” said Hawkins.
Speaking of help, donations including grocery items are being collected at First Baptist Church in Nahunta, along with Nahunta Methodist Church, which showed Action News Jax all of the food items they received in donations from the community.
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The church doesn’t just have food donation items from the community. They’re holding onto something special that was recovered from one of the houses in the path of the fire — a pair of male and female birds.
Church staff say the homeowners had to leave the birds behind, fearing their house would burn down. The house survived, and the owners are expected to come back to the church today to retrieve the pets.
Staff members at the Nahunta Methodist Church say that they expect to start feeding the community by Friday.
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